LIFE AMONG THE ESKIMOS ■ 227 



women alike, sitting often cross-legged as they work, and taking their meals, 

 and rest and sleep. 



"The tent itself is of a very peculiar construction. The framework con- 

 sists of a high trestle, upon which a number of poles are laid, forming a semi- 

 circle below and converging more or less to a point at the top. Over these 

 poles a double layer of skins is stretched, the inner coat with the hair turned 

 inward, and the outer generally consisting of the old coverings of boats and 

 kayaks. The entrance is under the above-mentioned trestle, which is covered 

 by the thin curtain of which I have just spoken. This particular tent housed 

 four or five different families, each having their own particular partition 

 marked off upon the common couch. Before every family stall a train-oil lamp 

 was burning with a broad flame. These lamps are flat, semi-circular vessels of 

 pot-stone, about a foot in length. The ^vick is made of dried moss, which is 

 placed against one side of the lamp and continually fed with pieces of fresh 

 blubber, which soon melt into oil. The lamps are in charge of the women, 

 who have special sticks to manipulate the wicks with, to keep them both from 

 smoking and burning too low. Great pots of the same stone hang above, and 

 in them the Esquimaux cook all their food, which they do not eat raw. Strange 

 to say, they use neither peat nor wood for cooking purposes, though such fuel 

 is not difficult to procure. The lamps are kept burning night and day; they 

 serve for both heating and lighting purposes, for Esquimaux do not sleep in 

 the dark, like other people ; and they also serve to maintain a permanent odor 

 of train-oil which, as I have said, our European senses at first found not alto- 

 gether attractive, but which we soon learned not only to tolerate, but to take 

 pleasure in. * * * 



"The man embraced a fat woman, and thereupon the pair with extreme 

 complacency pointed to some younger individuals, the whole pantomime giving 

 us to understand that the party together formed a family of husband, wife, and 

 children. The man then proceeded to stroke his wife down the back, and to 

 pinch her here and there, to show us how charming and delightful she was, and 

 how fond he was of her, the process giving her at the same time evident sat- 

 isfaction. Curiously enough, none of the men in this tent seemed to have more 

 than one wife, though it is a common thing among the east coast Esquimaux 

 for a man to keep two if he can afford them, though never more. As a rule the 

 men are good to their wives, and a couple may even be seen to kiss each other 

 at times, though the process is not carried out on European lines, but by a mu- 

 tual rubbing of noses. Domestic strife is, however, not unknown, and it some- 



